The AP reports: "NSA leaker Edward Snowden spent two days in the Russian Consulate in Hong Kong directly before flying to Moscow on what turned out to be an abortive attempt to reach asylum in Latin America."

Report: Cuba Blocked Snowden From Coming

By Associated Press

26 August 13

SA leaker Edward Snowden spent two days in the Russian Consulate in Hong Kong directly before flying to Moscow on what turned out to be an abortive attempt to reach asylum in Latin America, the respected newspaper Kommersant reported Monday, citing unidentified sources in Snowden's circle and the Russian government.

If true, this would suggest greater Russian involvement in Snowden's efforts to escape American justice than President Vladimir Putin's government has acknowledged. The newspaper also reported that Cuba was instrumental in blocking Snowden's further travels.

Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who leaked information about the scope of U.S. government surveillance, flew to Moscow on June 23, with a ticket that would take him on to Cuba the following day. From there he could travel to countries willing to offer him asylum, including Bolivia and Venezuela. But he did not board the flight to Havana and remained in limbo until being granted asylum in Russia on Aug. 1.

Kommersant, citing a Russian government official, reported that Snowden appeared at the Russian Consulate in Hong Kong on his own initiative two days before the flight, showed his Aeroflot ticket and asked for help. Two days after Snowden landed in Moscow, Putin said that his choice of travel route and his request for Russia's help had come as a "complete surprise." This was interpreted at the time as referring to his arrival in Moscow, but Putin did not specify.

On Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said it would have no immediate comment.

The newspaper, citing several "informed" sources, said that Cuba informed Russia that the Aeroflot flight from Moscow would not be allowed to land in Havana if Snowden were on board, citing pressure from the United States. A source identified as someone "close to the State Department" confirmed to the paper that Cuba was among a number of countries that had been warned not to provide assistance to Snowden.

Snowden has not been seen in public since arriving at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. Between his arrival on June 23 and being granted asylum nearly six weeks later, the Russian government said Snowden was limited to the airport's transit zone. He held a closed meeting in the airport with representatives of human rights groups in mid-July.

After he was granted asylum, he was allowed to leave the airport, but there have been no reports of where he's staying.

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We don't know where your exact position isEdward Snowden, we know the exact positionof Julian Assange, and to both os you:all decent people in this world want you tokeep up the good spirit and not to forgetthat we are all behind you and wishing youall well.

It is a huge disappointment if Cuba allowed itself to be bullied by the United States. One would have thought that having been on the end of US bullying for decades and decades and decades, Cuba would have realized that acceding to a bully's demands is not a good course of action.

After decades of attempted assassinations and invasions, it is understandable if they would weaken here. Also, I think the bait of lifting some of the sanctions has been in the works for a while. That is only because American businesses have been pushing for that in recent years.

Obviously, as you point out in your statement, the USA pressure on Cuba must have been so extreme that Cuba, which has stood up to many horrific attacks by the USA, had to give in to the threat by the USA. Are we all so brave that we would never be cowed by such power? Cuba needs trade and a slackening in the physical threats that it always has from the USA so it can't really do the "right" thing in something that matters to us much more than it does to them. They already know what it feels like to be spied on by the USA. Our problem isn't necessarily theirs. We had our 9/11. How many Americans suffer over Chile's 9/11 or even know about it? Pretty self-centered

A number of years ago I attended a socialist workers party held , in Atlanta, in honor of a Cuban diplomat. At it, I advised him that establishing "normal" relations with the US gov was in the Cuban peoples worst interest, like the Roman soldier boy that hid a fox under his clothing as it ate his innards. I was the only person during his visit that offered that viewpoint. All others fell into the "Cuba needs trade" meme. I have never backed away from that advice. The love of money being the root of all evil and the US is such a font of it (evil).

I wonder how much the US government would go public on carrying out its threat to a small country if it allowed Snowden to land in its airport?? The US is a big bully but has it no pride? As a side note, I am glad that Snowden is keeping his whereabouts as private as possible.

Obama probably threatened Cuba with another Bay of Pigs invasion. Castro then backed down!!!What has Obama and his foreign policy advisers (oxymoron here!) offered Cuba in exchange. A quiet thawing and opening of relations, no embargo of Cuban cigars and rum?

Oh, you all would be surprised at the apparently minor diplomacy situations in which ambassadors will consult the US embassy in far off places before taking an initiative. Example, I was a hostage (along with a few hundred others) and I attempted a deal that would have granted the hostage takers free passage out of their country and into asylum in a third country. Later the ambassador of that third country, that would have granted the asylum, said that he had swallowed hard, but he asked the US ambassador if it would be acceptable (it was).

Being in a sphere of influence or someone's backyard requires more humility than proud countries would be suspected of.

Just for the record, the hostage takers when offered the deal said, "If we wanted to leave the country we would have left, but we have a cause." So the negotiations never took off. The hostage takers all died for their cause.

I feel what you are trying to say VGrandma but the reality is far different. The people of Cuba, not the politicians nor the police or the military are the ones that suffer when the US institutes more restrictions. There is already a stranglehold on Cuba & I wish a normalization of all US-Cuba affairs in the near future. As long as anyone named Castro is in charge though, this will never happen. There are 2 sides to every coin & I have heard these 2 sides from many Cubans that now live in the US. Just go to Miami & listen, speaking Spanish helps of course, & you will hear brutal stories of life under Castro. Of course I have never been to Cuba so I cannot fairly judge these stories to be true or not. But they are told in variations by so many different people that is difficult not to at least partially believe some of these horrendous tales.

yes. and in the next election, we the people must not vote for either a republican or a democrat. We need to come together (via the internet I guess) as a public and identify a candidate and his or her group of advisors, staff, cabinet members, and aides ----all people known to us and not politicians. We need people who are working now for us--environmentalists, peace workers, great thinkers, organic food growers, natural health advocates, ---. We all know people, I bet, whose knowledge and competence would make them great advisors to the president. We need to gather these people together and find a candidate for president (not a politician) to run with them. Truth tellers must run the US. (This would not be easy at any step, but it is what we need to do. Can you help? Will you help? Please reply.)

Need for critical thinking: can we honestly. any longer, elect anyone at any level? Vote death is now in place, with no good vote and count regs. in place and meaningfully enforced. Then, there's mass voter disenfranchisement/disabling. Think our first move needs to be to get out of old common law m.o.: govt. immunity, called sovereign immunity in the U.K., from whence it comes.

My hope: hefty penalization (i.e. mandatory incarceration) for any and all govt. officials caught doing/o.k.ing election fraud/wrongful disenfranchisement. Immediate viewing available, via secret tag number on ballot, of for whom/what you have voted, including immediate tally, in order to assure your vote having been honestly counted.

Once aforementioned are in place, yes, let's get real McCoy people servers voted into office, with only minimal/public campaign funding allowed, and any/all kochsucking buyouts of pols. immediately heavily penalized.

Ah, how history rhymes. I remember in the not so distant past several US administrations aided Soviet(Russian) defectors and provided asylum.

I find it oh so ironic and sadly funny that the Russians are providing the same service to a dissident of the United States.

Seeuingao:

Nice sentiments,and I concur. However, we need to do a whole lot more than simply wish our fellow Patriots well.

We need to make so much noise and create such a spectacle that the government is forced to listen to us. All means must be non-violent, non-threatening but loud and obnoxious. If ten percent of the population turned out on one day there would be thirty million people on the street. We have to break through the apathy thatruns rampant in our land.

We need a non violent but very threatening presidential candidate campaign for the next election. We need a candidate who is not a politician, certainly not a republican or a democrat. And we need that candidate to identify about a hundred aids, advisors, cabinet members and staff before and during the campaign who are also not politicians but who are experts in an area of public concern---environmentalists, peace policy experts, great thinkers such as Naom Chomsky and Bill Moyers, journalists like Chris Hedges--people we know and people who have already shown us by their work that they are with the people. Shouting in the street doesn't change enough. Recently, it doesn't change anything except the shouter's arrest record and health needs. We need to actually change our government---to ourselves. Do you know someone who should be in this group? Will you help to gather the group together? Please reply.

bingers, both you and Kathymoi are ignoring the fact that there have been and are real alternative candidates for the presidency. You've just accepted the mainstream media prison cell thinking that they can't win, so, guess what?, they don't! I'm personally very please with myself for having supported Ron Paul and then voted for Cynthia McKinney and Jill Stein in the past two elections. None of this Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden persecution business would have happened under a Paul, McKinney, or Stein administration. The alternative to Democrap candidates does not necessarily have to be Republi-cons.

If this is true it's absolutely wild. Cuba and the USA as co-conspirators? I suppose they have been all along, but in the same interest? Curiouser & Curiouser as Alice or one of her co-conspirators once said. Something's missing here. Like maybe the truth?

We need a non violent but very threatening presidential candidate campaign for the next election. We need a candidate who is not a politician, certainly not a republican or a democrat. And we need that candidate to identify about a hundred aids, advisors, cabinet members and staff before and during the campaign who are also not politicians but who are experts in an area of public concern---environmentalists, peace policy experts, great thinkers such as Naom Chomsky and Bill Moyers, journalists like Chris Hedges--people we know and people who have already shown us by their work that they are with the people. Shouting in the street doesn't change enough. Recently, it doesn't change anything except the shouter's arrest record and health needs. We need to actually change our government---to ourselves. Do you know someone who should be in this group? Will you help to gather the group together? Please reply.

If you want the country to succeed you need to split the conservative vote, not the liberal vote. I know it sounds nice, but only the left can save the country and it isn't done by splitting us into groups. It also isn't by electing people like Hillary Clinton, another corporatist. It's done by electing people like Howard Dean, Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, etc.

The reason that Cuba denied Snowden coming there is that Cuba believed that it was in their long term best interest. Castro and his brother are getting old and so is the revolution. They were abandoned by Russia and left to fend for themselves. I believe they are looking towards the day when relations to the U.S. will thaw and have a more normal relationship. The relationship between the two countries has been mismanaged by both sides for decades.

The left has forgotten Cuba has strong ties with the American government and its ally, the Outfit. We have watched the post Castro Junta move quickly to the right and an unholy alliance with Holders Justice Department. They have fir years persecuted anarchists and people from differing life styles including the GLTG community placing these dissenters and revolutionaries in prison hells.

It could start with giving Guantanamo back to its rightful owners: either the Cubans or ,if there are any left, the original indigenous people. even that wouldn't fool most people of the world other than Americans

You know, everyone assumes that Cuba backed down to threats from us, but nobody seems to imagine that they may have had their own reasons.

Frankly, when Snowden outed our actions against our citizens I thought he was a hero, but when I found out he blabbed our actions against China and Russia, he became a traitor and should be hanged by the neck until dead.

As it turns out by his own admission, he's a far right winger who took the job for the specific purpose of damaging Obama. Time to wake up and stop supporting that scumbag.

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